no title

Tesla dispute should arouse tea party

Letters Policy

The Dispatch welcomes letters to the editor from readers. Typed letters of 200 words or
fewer are preferred; all might be edited. Each letter must include name, home address and daytime
phone number.
Dispatch.com also posts letters that don't make it to print in
The Dispatch.

Where’s the tea party now? I respond to the Tuesday
Dispatch article “Auto dealers seek to stop Tesla’s way of selling,” regarding dealers
lobbying lawmakers to stifle their competitive threat.

Industry’s reaction, every time, is to try to reduce competition through legislative maneuvers
and petitioning governmental intervention. From the gambling-parlor folks to the car dealers, they
take a legal/legislative approach instead of trying to improve themselves.

Competition makes things better only when people actually compete, thereby improving operations,
efficiencies, innovations, etc. Everybody gains when that happens, most notably consumers. But
nobody wins when competition turns into a race to write a bill.

The tea party was born in the aftermath of the federal government’s response to the economic
calamity in 2007. But here in Ohio, I have not heard from the tea party regarding government
involvement in free markets.

The tea party has remained silent, or moved on to other issues, such as social issues, which it
vowed to avoid upon its emergence. Where is the tea party now?